Need to make the most of my 1st ever 3 min appointment with Psychiatrist for difficult child

Last week we had an evaluation at a new place, where they offer counseling, a psychiatrist, a counselor that comes out to the home and school, and other than an inadequate evaluation, at least they're offering more services at this new place.

Personally I've never seen a psychiatrist. Never needed one. However my difficult child does and we're scheduled to see one soon.

The evaluator seemed to be a bit distracted by her morning sickness and I felt at times she was looking for MY diagnosis of my difficult child, which irritated me. I KNOW she has ODD, AND something else. However since I couldn't specifically say with authority WHAT other thing she has, on their analysis and paper it says ODD and nothing else.

I don't know if there is medication for ODD or not.

I don't know how to convince the Psychiatrist that she needs medication for something more than ODD. Or just medication period.

Her former counselor told me that in her opinion she does need medication, the few times she saw her in the office she could tell that she'd "space out" and other times bounce off the walls, that she needs something to take the edge off. I totally agree.

What should I expect or accept from this first appointment? Can I push for medication even when I don't have a clue which type she should have?

What do I say or ask the doctor?

And my gut says I may be making a mistake by changing places, but the other place didn't offer all of these services, if they had I'd still be taking my difficult child there.

I know the difficult child may very well be composed and appear fine to the doctor, usually that's the case, she's looking good while I"m buckling from the stress and strain and confusion and frustration of all of this stuff.

I truly hope he doesn't get off on the "bad mom" attitude like the evaluator did. She didn't outright accuse me of it, however she commented several times that since my difficult child is okay at school and "only seems to have a problem at home, with mom, control issues and other things" that well mom is not a good parent.

Any suggestions on how to handle things at the psychiatrist's office would be appreciated, at the moment I know that the evaluator's notes are lacking, and I know I need to maybe make a list of all the "weird things" like sneaking food, running away, the ODD stuff, the blank looks we get when we ask her questions, the "difficult child isn't here, she's gone" in other words at times she acknowledges being spoken to, but not by her nickname nor given name "those people aren't here" and when asked what to call her, it's like...no one's home she can't give me a name to call her....

I never know what to tell them and what not to tell them. I just know there are a lot of weird things and adjustments we've had to make like locking up some important papers after a good amount of irreplaceable things have been ruined, and locking up the fridge so I don't have to buy milk daily, things like that.....

Hopefully I'll figure out what's relevant and not before the appointment.

the psychiatrist should be doing his own evaluation...maybe the evaluation you already had was more of an intake for service?
the psychiatrist is the one who makes the diagnosis and prescribes the medications, so they needs to have an understanding of your difficult child's issues. its not something that should be done on hearsay from some random evaluator....they can take their thoughts into account, but the psychiatrist should have their own take on the situation.

make that list. make it reasonably thorough. and then hand him a copy. the list helps to show the big picture, and any patterns that even
we as parents dont necessarily recognize. but definitely put your thoughts on paper--it will help.

some psychiatrists rx medications right out the box (and diagnosis after a 10 minute questionaire)....some prefer to see you several times to come up with a cohesive
treatment plan, including an accurate diagnosis and an rx plan.

from what you say, there is more than just ODD involved, and the right course of treatment is *VERY* important. medications are a tricky thing--prescribe the wrong one for the wrong disorder and things could get worse.

just tell the truth, no matter how wacky it might seem (they've heard it all, and then some) and it will be fine!

I think what we had was an intake for service, yet she took notes and made her own judgements.
I hope that this psychiatrist does an evaluation on her for sure. Since I've never seen one before I hope it goes well and we don't just get sent home with nothing, like usual.

I am having a hard time dealing with the hate and anger she displays toward me (the difficult child that is).

I do need to make that list though, since I tend to forget things and later on wish that I'd mentioned it.

I just put a lock on the outside of her door, NOT to lock her in, but to ensure that only she and the things she needs inside go in or out. Found opened bean soup and ginger ale and a peanut butter jar in her room yesterday. As usual, they were in there without my knowledge nor permission.

I'm learning to ask questions and realizing that I need to search the archives more often. Y'all know a lot more than I do.

Your daughter NEEDS a VERY complete evaluation, including a neurological evaluation for the spacing out and not answering to her name. You need to rule out some sort of seizure disorder and/or other neurological issues. in my opinion you need to get a referral to a pediatric neurologist to get a sleep deprived EEG done.

To give the docs a good list of what is going on, I STRONGLY urge you to complete a Parent Report. If you go to the FAQ/Board Help Forum and open a thread called Parent Input/Multidisciplary Evaluation (might be just MDE), you will find an outline that was made many years ago to help keep ALL the info about a difficult child in one place. It is still the most complete report on one of our kids that I have ever seen. Even if you cannot complete it all before the appointment, take what you have. Actually, make a summary of it all (like an Executive Summary of a report) that includes all the symptoms in a bullet list format and make SURE the psychiatrist sees that summary with the list.

The report takes a couple of sessions to complete. There is just so much info that it is more complete if you work on it in sections.

Thank you, I' m going to look in the FAQ for the parent input thing and start filling it out.
Good ideas, I will try to see if I can get her tested for the EEG thing too, her physician said "there's nothing wrong with her but her weight, she needs to lose some". And there was no comment when I said she'd gained at least 10 pounds since the end of March.

At this point the places we've gone (except the one counselor we had to drop due to the services offered at this new place) everyone seems to prefer to chalk up all her attitude and behaviors to Oppositional Defiant Disorder ONLY, and Im like No there's more to it than just ODD, gut feeling tells me this if nothing else......hopefully we can get her some help so we can all get a bit of peace around here.

I would take her to a neuropsychologist. Frankly, they do more intensive diagostic testing than psychiatrists (and I've seen a ton myself and more for my son). They don't always get it right. NeuroPsychs are in my opinion way more thorough. Then you can tell the psychiatrist what he said and how the testing came out and go from there. That's what I'd do.' medications will not solve everything. It all depends on what's going on...different treatment for different disorders.

The "evaluator" sounds spacey and not very schooled on childhood disorders. ODD rarely stands alone. Unfortunately, you get what you pay for most of the time.

LuvBooks, LOL! Glad it isn't just 3 min. That would make me very nervous.
I agree with-the others.
Bring as much paperwork as possible to the mtng, and describe the behaviors as best you can, such as if you notice any triggers, what your daughter's early development was like, etc.
I agree, the evaluator was no help.
Also, this will be an ongoing process, so you will want to make appts every 30 days to get medication refills and meet the dr again. It's a lot of work but worth it.
Best of luck!